Promise the sky during the campaign. Come back down to earth when it’s time to actually govern. That’s the timeless political strategy adopted by office-seekers across the globe.

Not this week in Italy.

The two populist parties seeking to form a government spent the months before the March election sanding down their rhetoric against the euro. But as they get ready to take charge, their Euroskeptic edges are starting to show once again.

Exhibit A: An early draft of a possible coalition agreement between the anti-establishment 5Star Movement and the far-right League leaked to the Italian edition of the Huffington Post. The document calls for the renegotiation of EU treaties, including the Stability and Growth Pact, the cancellation of €250 billion in Italian government debt by the European Central Bank, and a revision of Italy’s contribution to the EU budget.

The document was quickly dismissed by the leaders of the two parties as out of date and not necessarily indicative of the coalition’s final accord. But it reveals, according to party leaders, a hard-line approach to dictates from Brussels.

“This is the time to have courage. The courage to keep going and change things” — Luigi Di Maio

“We think that people come ahead of economic obligations and that it’s not possible to impoverish citizens in order to respect constraints decided by others,” Lorenzo Fontana, a top League official, said. “The people come before the economy. For too long these priorities have been backwards.”

Another leading League parliamentarian, Nicola Molteni, told the Il Messaggero daily a tougher stance on the EU is one of the “non-negotiable themes” that League leader Matteo Salvini had asked for during the coalition negotiations.

While the 5Stars have generally taken a less aggressive stance against the euro, they have begun to reemphasize their opposition to what they describe as EU-imposed austerity.

“We’ve always been critical of the excessive budgetary restrictions imposed by the European treaties,” said Alfonso Bonafede, a 5Stars parliamentarian whose name was floated in Italian media Wednesday as a potential prime minister. “They impede expansive polices in periods of recession or stagnation, damaging not just the Italian economy but putting at risk the financial and political fabric of the entire European Union.”

The League party leader Matteo Salvini | Riccardo Antimiani/EPA

The leaders of both parties have been quick to seize on statements from Brussels as occasions to demonstrate their intransigence. “We face continuous attacks from unelected Eurocrats,” 5Star leader Luigi Di Maio said in a video Tuesday in response to statements by European commissioners expressing hope that Italy will not drastically change its fiscal or migration policies.

“This is the time to have courage,” Di Maio then wrote on his party’s webpage. “The courage to keep going and change things.”

In a live video on Facebook Wednesday, Salvini said Italy is no longer going to take orders from the EU and boasted that if financial markets are worried, it’s “a good sign” because it means officials in foreign capitals realize change is happening.

‘Italexit is back’

The proposals in the leaked accord sent tremors through the markets Tuesday, driving up the Italian government’s costs of borrowing, weakening the euro against the dollar and shaving about 2 percent off the value of the Milan stock exchange.

Italy is the eurozone’s third-largest economy, and one of its most indebted, with a public debt of some €2.3 trillion, according to the Bank of Italy, equivalent to roughly 132 percent of the country’s GDP.

“Italexit is back,” Lorenzo Codogno, a former chief economist and director general at the Italian Treasury, wrote in an investment note Wednesday.

“This leak will be an eye-opening experience for those who had a very complacent attitude towards a 5Stars-League government. Although the two parties may eventually water down the proposals, the document reveals the true extent of their oddity, inexperience and off-track nature. The attitude of financial markets will not be the same from today onwards,” he said.

Italy has a public debt of some €2.3 trillion | Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images

Some stances have already started to shift. Claudio Borghi, a League MP responsible for the party’s economic policy, said Wednesday that the party doesn’t want the ECB to cancel Italy’s debt, but to change the way the debt it holds is used to calculate spending limits under the EU treaties.

That change seemed to have been confirmed in a later version of the contract leaked to the La Repubblica newspaper on Wednesday evening. The new draft still contains elements that would be difficult for Brussels to digest, especially coming from a founding EU member and the third largest economy in the eurozone. These include a call for “reducing EU competences,” as well as changes to the treaties and a denunciation of austerity policies.

Coalition talks continued Wednesday, with the two parties saying they expected to have an accord and government ready to present to Italian President Sergio Mattarella “before Monday.” The two parties have yet to agree on a prime minister, though the League has made it clear that holding the interior ministry will be a priority.

On Wednesday, Di Maio said he and Salvini were “ready to step aside” and not serve in the government if that was required to reach a deal.

“If we start off soft, we’ll end up like the past government” — Lorenzo Fontana, a top League official

The parties still face a steep climb as they need the blessing of both Mattarella and the members of their parties in order to form a government.

But one thing is unlikely to change: the two parties’ hard stance against Brussels.

“If we start off soft, we’ll end up like the past government,” Fontana said in an interview with the La Repubblica newspaper Wednesday. “We don’t want to be subjects, but equal partners with other countries.”

Related stories on these topics:

Nick Blomme

What is it? 17 Italian governments in the last 25 years? Do people really think that those 2 parties will stay together the next 5 years? I think that Berlusconi doesn’t think so…

Posted on 5/16/18 | 7:11 PM CEST

Veritas Semper

Dipped again into my bag of pop corn and readjusted my front row seat… this is going to be good!

Go Azzurri!

Posted on 5/16/18 | 7:27 PM CEST

Ghost of JB

“document reveals the true extent of their oddity, inexperience and off-track nature”

In a world where anyone who questions the EU orthodoxy is off-track..

Be honest, they’ve seen what happened to Greece and they don’t want to be the next sacrificial victims. That seems reasonable.

Posted on 5/16/18 | 8:06 PM CEST

Bob Rob

In a way I blame them less then the European leaders that pushed through bailouts and quantitative easing. People are apparently willing to lend to Italy at ridiculously low interest rates So who is really the fool ? I mean if you give perverse incentives you get perverse results. Same thing with the migration problem if EU leaders take immigrants in and provide them with housing,welfare,medical care, schooling and access to work is it any wonder every fortune seeker starts to attempt to cross the Sahara / Mediterranean / Alps to get it ? It is all caused by perverse incentives.

Posted on 5/16/18 | 8:28 PM CEST

Cheeky NumberTwo

Its a bit late to ask for debt cancellation after you’ve sold your soul to the Euro devil. Should have asked for a longer spoon BEFORE sitting down to sup.

Posted on 5/16/18 | 10:00 PM CEST

Bob Rob

Who would have ever thought Italy could borrow more cheaply than the USA ? The US 10 yr is at 3.1% (Italy as of writing 2.1%) historically still extremely low but enough to start taking a bite out of the phoney recovery the US has seen since 08′ and where will the domino fall ? Housing ? And then QE4ever and collapse of the dollar.

Posted on 5/16/18 | 11:30 PM CEST

peter lintner

If you build an utopian, unsustainable currency union it´s only a question of time when someone starts question its policies and the whole institutional setup. So the choice fell on Italy. But Macron is doing the same by the way, only in less confrontational way. Everyone knows, even Brussels admit it, that eurozone in current form is unworkable. So why being surprised. Either split it in orderly way, or it will get broken apart in disorderly way. The choice is up on Brussels.

Posted on 5/17/18 | 12:07 AM CEST

john campbell

Meanwhile in Rome…..the sh*t and the fan are moving ever closer towards an impact.

Posted on 5/17/18 | 8:40 AM CEST

Perry Winkle

The Euro Zone’s made up of blood suckers and debt collectors.

Posted on 5/17/18 | 10:27 AM CEST

Deplor Ables

The last four years the migration policies of Italian “democratic” governments have been characterized by the philosophy of “open doors”: anyone who reached the Italian coast (often with the decisive help of the Italian Navy) from North Africa was admitted to ad libitum permanence in Italy, without any threat of being rejected at the border or to be expelled to the country of origin, even in the case of committing serious crimes: all this, waiting for each migrant to find the opportunity to move (again illegally) in the European country he wanted to reach ( France, Germany, UK, Sweden etc.).

This situation contributed decisively to the victory of the “populist” parties, that demanded an opposite attitude, with much greater rigor in the admission and permanence of migrants on Italian (European) soil.

Despite the clear orientation expressed in this last sense by the Italians in the recent elections, the EU Commission finds nothing better than “express hope that Italy will not drastically change its .. migration policies”, namely that is manatained the situation of emergency and of illegality which has characterized the last four years.

At this point it seems clear that the headline of the article should have been:
“Brussels seeks collision course with democracy, logic and common sense”.

Posted on 5/17/18 | 10:45 AM CEST

maciek maciek

Italy has a public debt of some €2.3 trillion.
Is the League and 5Stars future government guilty of this exorbitant debt, or the past Italian governments Brussels had so dear?

Posted on 5/17/18 | 12:21 PM CEST

Nathan Kennedy

And the EU fiddled while Rome burns huh?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, without a common language, single elected President and federal government that can overrule individual nation states when needed the EU is doomed to fail.

Put another way, integrate or die.

Posted on 5/17/18 | 12:30 PM CEST

Henk Crop

@Deplor Ables. You are right. The EU immigration laws date from 1951, while they should be based on 2051. Just in Africa the population will then be ca. 2500 million, up from 1250 million now. The EU is like a dinosaur. Incapable to see the changes in the world. Our leaders do not protect their citizen anymore. Their is no other solution than they must be removed. I hope the new Italian parties will succeed.

Posted on 5/17/18 | 4:58 PM CEST

peter lintner

@ Henk Crop

Exactly. They want to govern 21 century with mid-20 century laws when world population was 3 billion.

Also, Europe does not have a geographical location for their idealistic policies. Canada can declare that anyone can come, because they know very well that no one really will (illegally), since they are protected by thousands of kms of ocean. Europe is directly connected with two mega continents witch combined population of 5 billion now, and 10 billion at the end of this century. If we declare then anyone can come, hundreds of millions will.

If european civilisation and culture is to survive, there´s only one option: border protection and turning away any illegal that comes around.

Posted on 5/17/18 | 7:46 PM CEST

contango one

TO: POLITICO CENSORSHIP BOARD

I wrote a brief comment about the brussles eurocrats fat salaried globalists trying to destroy the western civilization by importing millions of moslems against the will of the people and how their days are numbered with italy showing the way

AND YOU DELETED IT

because its not in accordance with ur left wing kumbaya treasonous political correctness that prohibits anyone from saying anything even REMOTELY NEGATIVE about moslem immigrants

did you not?
yes you did

thats fine

KEEP DELETING COMMENTS LIKE THAT
its the first and most important tell tale sign that:

YOU ARE RUNNING SCARED
AND SOON YOU ARE GONNA BE IN FULL RETREAT

I LIVE TO SEE A VICTOR ORBAN PRIME MINISTER IN EVERY WESTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRY WITHIN THE DECADE